At the beginning of the year, the government revealed its 25 year environment plan, the central aim of which is to protect and preserve the UK environment. ONS has a role to play in developing a full set of ‘natural capital’ accounts. Here, Ashley Ward explains the concept of natural capital and what it brings to environmental policy making.

Median household net wealth in Great Britain was £259,400 in 2014/16, according to the latest estimates from the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey. This was an increase from £225,100 (+15%) in 2012/14, not adjusting for the effects of inflation.
Total household net wealth in Great Britain was £12.8 trillion in 2014/16, up from £11.1 trillion (+15%) in 2014/16.
Private pension wealth (which forms the largest element of total wealth) was the component that grew the strongest in 2014/16. Aggregate private pension wealth increased by 20% from £4.4 trillion to £5.3 trillion. Pension pots made up 44% of the wealth of the top decile, 47% of the second wealthiest and 41% of the third wealthiest. However, it made up a much smaller share of the least wealthy deciles’ wealth.
There was a record 17% growth in aggregate net property wealth in GB in 2014/16 driven largely by increases of median net property wealth in London of around a third between 2012/14 and 2014/16.
Total debt of all GB households was £1.23 trillion in 2014/16 (+7% on 2014/16), of which £1.12 trillion was mortgage debt (+6%) and £117.0 billion was financial debt (+15%).
Overall wealth inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, fell a little in 2014/16, but inequality in property wealth grew slightly.

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